After 14 Years on ‘Blue Bloods,’ Alumna Hands in Her Badge
Actress Looks Back on Tenure With Long-Running CBS Series
On the long-running CBS drama "Blue Bloods," Abigail Hawk '04 plays the self-assured Det. Abigail Baker, primary aide to NYPD police commissioner Frank Reagan (played by Tom Selleck). The show wraps up its 14-year run on Dec. 13.
Photo by John Paul Filo/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved
For most actors, landing a steady gig for a year or two is cause to rejoice. In 2010, Abigail Hawk ’04 scored the role of Detective Abigail Baker on the CBS police procedural “Blue Bloods,” and the show turned out to be as steady and reliable as the character: The series, starring Hollywood heavyweights Tom Selleck and Donny Wahlberg, will conclude on Dec. 13 after 14 seasons.
“Obviously, gratitude is paramount, but it’s sad,” said Hawk. “The chemistry that we all had together, having spent a decade and a half working together, came through. The friendships are real.”
As traditional as grandma’s pot roast, “Blue Bloods” follows the Reagans, a multi-generational law enforcement family. (Frank, played by Selleck, is the New York City police commissioner, as was his father; his two sons are an NYPD detective and sergeant, and his daughter is an assistant district attorney.) There’s family drama, but regardless of who’s feuding, the Reagan clan comes together for Sunday supper.
Photo courtesy of Abigail Hawk
As Frank Reagan’s primary aide, Baker is confident and poised, with “an impeccable ability to read people,” said Hawk. “I will miss her self-assuredness. I tend to suffer from impostor syndrome, like probably every other actor you’re ever going to meet. We never think we’re good enough.”
Mentors from Hawk’s time at the University of Maryland tell a different story. A native of Atlanta, Hawk came to College Park wanting to pursue both theater and a liberal arts education. Almost immediately, faculty members say, her talent and her leadership ability were clear.
“She was one of those kids that hit the ground running and did everything and just lifted the tide for everyone,” said Scot Reese, a professor of performance in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies who taught Hawk and directed her in “Sophisticated Ladies,” a musical revue based on the work of Duke Ellington. “You never saw anyone that worked harder than her. She had a great sense of humor, and wanted to make sure the rest of the students were having just as much fun as she was having.”
After graduating from UMD, Hawk moved to New York City and began auditioning for roles in theater, television and film. Though she picked up some roles, it wasn’t until 2010 that she got her big break in “Blue Bloods”—possibly thanks to a new hair color. “I had gone brunette for a time after moving to New York City and wasn’t getting work as an actor,” said Hawk. “I made an impulse decision to dye my hair super blonde and I booked ‘Blue Bloods’ the next day.”
“Blue Bloods,” created by alums of “The Sopranos,” was popular Friday-night fare regularly drawing 8 to 13 million viewers throughout its run. Though the show has received some flak for its rosy portrayal of police, it’s been a relative critical success. Newsday TV critic Verne Gay wrote of its upcoming cancellation that “network TV … needs shows that are beloved, needs shows about faith, needs shows about New York City, and cops, and the messy political-judicial-socioeconomic ties that bind them. Fourteen years in, ‘Blue Bloods’ is still that show.”
Now Hawk has an eagle eye trained on the future. She’s starring in the independent film “Daruma,” which stars two disabled actors as friends who must bring the newly discovered 4-year-old daughter of one of them across the country to her grandparents.
She’s also expanding into a new endeavor: writing. Hawk is working on a novel set in Victorian London, based on the real-life story of Mary Pearcy, who in 1890 was hanged for murdering the wife and child of her lover. Hawk, long fascinated by Jack the Ripper and the “seediness of that time period,” had first attempted to write a musical about the serial killer but soon discovered that “that life is not for me—I am not Lin-Manuel Miranda.”
Leigh Wilson Smiley, associate professor emerita of theatre performance who taught Hawk, noted that Hawk possesses a critical quality for both actors and writers. “A big muscle for any actor is empathy, and her empathetic muscle is out of this world,” said Smiley. “She’s an extremely thoughtful person.”
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